7-Month-Old Girl Killed By Family’s Pet Pit Bull At Her Grandmother’s House

A young baby has been killed by a vicious dog bite while she was at her grandparents’ house.

The tragic event took place at a home on Fairwood Avenue in Clearwater. According to Tampabay, the report of a young child bitten by a dog was called in at 2:12 p.m.

Police said that the family pet dog, a pit bull mix named Lynnie, attacked the 7-year-old baby girl. The baby’s grandparents were reportedly babysitting the child when the attack happened.

Paramedics rushed the child to Mease Countryside Hospital for treatment but attempts to rescue the child were futile as she was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Joshua Scott, a neighbor who lives just two doors down from the home where the attack happened, said that he saw a gurney come out of the home after the incident, but he thought it was empty.

“We didn’t know at the time there was actually a child on the gurney,” he said. “I’ve come to find out it was a terrible scene.”

The police and the Department of Children and Families are now investigating the incident. The dog is now in the custody of the Pinellas County Animal Control and will be under rabies quarantine for 10 days.

This is not the first time that a pit bull attacked a child, raising concerns over the safety of having these animals around young children.

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In May, an 8-month old baby girl in Miramar, Florida was also killed after she was attacked by a family dog. According to USA Today, the infant’s grandmother was walking the family’s three pit bulls when one of the dogs got away from her and attacked the baby who was in a bouncy chair in one of the bedrooms.

Attacks are not always fatal but these leave painful scars.

In 2014, a toddler who was mauled by three pit bulls in her grandfather’s house survived the attack but she lost one eye.

Although pit bulls only make up about six percent of the dog population, they are behind 68 percent of dog attacks and 52 percent of dog-related deaths since 1982, according to Time, citing figures from research compiled by the animal news organization Animals 24-7

One reason why pit bulls can be very dangerous is that violence is in their DNA.

“Why do herding dogs herd? Why do pointing dogs point? They don’t learn that behavior, that’s selective behavior,” said Colleen Lynn, president and founder of DogsBite.org, a national dog-bite-victims group that aims to reduce dog attacks. “Pit bulls were specifically bred to go into that pit with incredible aggression and fight.”